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The Gmail team keeps making it easier for us to view and trade files.
Following what it started in March with YouTube videos, Yelp reviews, and Picasa and Flickr albums, the Gmail Labs folks are now letting us preview Google Docs right in Gmail.
Google Docs users can preview the contents of a Google document, spreadsheet or presentation right in Gmail, which will automatically detect when users receive a document link and display the name and type of doc below the e-mail.
After users see what the doc is about, they can click “Show preview,” and the contents of the document will display right in the e-mail, so users needn’t switch back and forth between the e-mail response and document.
Who doesn’t love to be efficient? That’s what this feature is all about, saving us from having to open links in another tab or window.
This is especially useful for power users who trade a lot of work documents with colleagues and can’t be bothered to open every single one.
As usual with Gmail Labs, this Docs preview feature can be enabled via the Labs tab under Settings in Gmail. Click “save” and you’re ready to preview away.
This is the second such efficiency Google has provided for its Docs services in October.
Just last week, Google added the ability for users to search for tax and other forms and documents in PDFs and view those in HTML by clicking a button. The Quick View renders the form right in Google Docs.
More poetry in efficiency, only in Google search.